Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama sinks to remarkable career low

Hideki Matsuyama has fallen outside the top 50 players in the world rankings for the first time since 2013.

Matsuyama entered the top-10 players in October 2016 and reached a career high of No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking a year later. 

He fell out of the top-10 in 2018, three years before he won the Masters, but has been an ever-present in the top 50 over the last couple of seasons. 

The Japanese golfer has, however, really struggled with injuries in recent months. Particularly with his back.

Matsuyama was forced to withdraw from last season's BMW Championship which ruled him out of the remainder of the postseason. 

With his season ending prematurely, it meant he did not advance to the Tour Championship for the first time in nine years. 

So far this season Matsuyama has played two PGA Tour events, The Sentry, where he finished second last. 

And he also finished middle of the pack at last week's Sony Open, won in thrilling fashion by Grayson Murray. 

It was the same tournament in which 2023 Open champion Brian Harman dropped an amusing tale about Matsuyama as a young professional. 

Scottie Scheffler is currently the reigning world number one, followed by Rory McIlroy.

Jon Rahm is still third but he is set to slide down the rankings after switching to the lucrative LIV Golf League. 

Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Harman and Wyndham Clark fill out the current top-10 players in the OWGR. 

Matsuyama has eight PGA Tour wins in his career and, at the time of writing, has won $44,259,447 in official prize money. 

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